As luck would have it, it does foretell an oncoming winter. Opportunity is preparing to find a spot to safely weather the frigid winter months on Mars, a long six months of reduced sunlight (which means less power from her solar panels) and temperatures dropping well into the -100ºs C (almost -200ºs F).
Tag: NASA
Incoming! First New Image of 2005 YU55
This radar image of 1300-foot-wide (400 meter) asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained on Nov. 7, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth. This asteroid will pass by Earth tomorrow at 6:28 pm EST,…
The Gift of Apollo
Just watch this: “Once upon a time we soared into the Solar System, for a few years… then we hurried back. Why? What happened? What was Apollo really about?” – Carl Edward Sagan, 1934–1996 Nothing more need be said.
2005 YU55 is coming…
On Tuesday, November 8, at 6:28 p.m. EST, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will soar past our planet, coming even closer than the Moon. This is the nearest an object this large has come since 1976… how will it affect our world? Find out here.
A Backwards Moon
At 1,680 miles across, the frigid and wrinkled Triton is distant Neptune’s largest moon. It orbits the planet backwards – that is, in the opposite direction that Neptune rotates – and is the only moon one of only two moons in our solar system to do so. This leads many astronomers to believe that Triton is…
A Front Row Seat to a Spacewalk
This was just so cool I had to share. It’s a photo taken by astronaut Doug Wheelock while on EVA on November 3, 2007 with Scott Parazynski aboard the ISS. He describes the scene on his Twitpic post (in the eloquent way only Doug can): “A front-row seat to a spacewalk. I remember this moment like…
The End of Elenin
So long, Elenin, and thanks for all the conspiracy theories! The comet that has been the subject of so much unfounded fearful speculation since its discovery in December 2010 will be making its closest pass of Earth tomorrow, October 16 – and when they say closest it means 22 million miles, or almost a third…
Latest Images of Enceladus
On Saturday, Oct. 1, the Cassini spacecraft performed another flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Passing by at a distance of only 62 miles (99 km) Cassini took some fantastic images of the 318-mile-wide moon — most notably of its signature plumes of water ice spraying from fissures along its south pole!
Pay a Visit to Vesta
Can’t see the video below? Click here. Here’s a great video released by JPL taking us on a virtual tour of the asteroid Vesta, from the point of view of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. It’s a shape model of Vesta, mapped with actual images acquired by Dawn during its approach and orbit of the 550-km (340-mile)…
A Splash of Sun
A large solar flare erupted from the Sun on September 7, 2011 and resulted in a coronal mass ejection (CME) and impressive display of magnetic activity, seen here in a video made from data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory’s AIA 304 imaging assembly. Spanning the course of about three hours over the 7th and 8th…
Senate Saves the JWST!
The 2012 fiscal year appropriation, marked up today by the Senate, allows for continued funding of the James Webb Space Telescope, enabling its launch in 2018! Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like this bird is going to fly. 🙂 Thanks to everyone who contacted their representatives and expressed their support of the JWST, to all…
To the Moon! GRAIL Successfully Launches on 9/10/11
Can’t see the video below? Click here. And away she goes! NASA’s GRAIL spacecraft launched successfully – and beautifully! – at 9:08 am EDT this morning from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta II Heavy rocket. This was the third day for launch attempts after several scrubs due to high-altitude winds on both Thursday and Friday….
Lights in the Dark 